Dune Star Trained With Navy Seals For Their Part Two Role

When it first debuted in 2021, Denis Villeneuve's Dune adaptation cemented itself as something bizarre and mesmerizing. The two-film take on Frank Herbert's sci-fi novel will continue with next year's Dune: Part Two, which is expected to up the ante in some creative ways. A new interview with one of the franchise's newest additions, Austin Butler, provides an inkling as to what that will entail. Butler, who will be playing Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, revealed that he trained with a Navy Seal to determine the physicality of his character

"For Dune, there were different challenges; there were certain physical things from the first meeting with Denis, [knowing] what his vision was," Butler explained to Backstage. "I worked with this…Navy Seal [guy] who trained me for months beforehand just to get my body into a place where it was available to not only be an imposing physical presence but do whatever was asked of me."

"The interesting thing was doing that in the middle of Elvis press," Butler continued. "I was doing that until Cannes, and then I was having to do all the press during the day and then train at night. That was a thing I had to manage during Elvis. [During Elvis], I could completely eliminate everything in the outside world, and now I had to learn how to do that in the midst of balancing other things, but it's still all that all-encompassing energy. I love living in these other worlds… I just let it consume me."

Who will be in Dune: Part Two?

Dune: Part Two is also expected to see the return of Timothee Chalamet as Paul Atredies, Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica, Josh Brolin as Gurney Halleck, Javier Bardem as Stilgar, and Zendaya as Chani, with Christopher Walker playing Emperor Shaddam IV, and Florence Pugh playing Princess Irulan.

"We have been hearing in the past few decades that it's not possible to adapt this book, and that it's an impossible task. I think that in the back of the mind of the studio, it's still the same!" Villeneuve told Total Film in an interview last year. "So the first thing was to prove that there was a beautiful, popular movie that can exist, and I think that I proved that – everybody at Warner Bros and Legendary, they are 100 percent behind the project. They feel that it would need a really bad outcome at the box office to not have a Dune: Part Two, because they love the movie. They are proud of the movie, so they want the movie to move forward. And they still did half of it. So, you know, I'm very optimistic."

"I'm writing [Part Two] now, and I feel like I'm eight years old again," he added. "That's very uncommon for me. It's the first time I've experienced it where I'm watching one of my movies, and I have a moment of deep gratitude, of deep joy, and I say, 'Thank you, life, for having allowed me to bring that to the screen.' [laughs] I don't know how other people will feel about it. But me? Denis Villeneuve when he was 14 years old? Thank you." 

Are you excited to see Austin Butler in Dune: Part 2? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Dune: Part 2 is currently scheduled to be released on November 3, 2023.